消费电子产品 顶级的未必划算 Jan 15, 2007《纽时周报全文精译》 2007/01/19 The Best Technology Is Not Always a Deal 张佑生译 耶诞节隔天，大萤幕电视机降价，劳尔‧艾克斯特先生迅速下手行动。 The day after Christmas, prices on big screen TVs went down and Raul Axtle pounced. 艾克斯特先生和16岁大的儿子夏新，前往加州艾莫利威尔市的一间电子商 店，购买一架夏新早就认定萤幕最适合打电玩的电视机，102公分的三星液晶 平面电视。 Mr. Axtle and his 16-year-old son, Shaheen, headed to an electronics store in Emeryville, California, to buy the TV that Shaheen had decided was the perfect screen for displaying video games, a 102-centimeter Samsung liquid crystal display flat panel. 四月刚上市时的售价是3000美元，艾克斯特先生用1600美元就买到了，比 耶诞节前还少了600美元。 It sold for $3,000 in April when it was introduced, but Mr. Axtle bought it for $1,600: $600 less than it was before Christmas. 而且，他当然知道以後还会更便宜。「每样商品都不断降价，」他说：「明 年的电视机会更好。」 And, yes, he knows it will be even cheaper tomorrow. “Everything keeps coming down in price,” he said. “Next year the TVs will be even better.” 选购消费性电子商品，未来比现在便宜，而且功能更强，已被视为理所当 然。上个世纪厂商故意设计制造很快就会报销的产品，让汰换加速的那一套讲 法，已成了明日黄花。无论是宽萤幕电视或手机，随身听，数位相机，随身碟 或外接硬碟，这些电子商品通常不会用到报销才换新。反而是消费者会觉得非 买新的设备不可，因为新的比旧的做得更多、更快、更好，还更便宜。 Paying less in the future for a device that can do more is now taken for granted when shopping for consumer electronics. Gone is last century’s theory of planned obsolescence in which manufacturers designed and built products that would quickly wear out and have to be replaced. Whether it is a big flat screen TV or cellphone, handheld music player, digital camera, flash drive and or external hard drive, these electronics do not usually wear out before they are replaced. Rather, the consumer may feel compelled to buy because the device does more, does it faster or does it better for less money than the original. 「一个重大的转变正在发生，」市调公司「流行分析」研究主任沙米尔‧ 巴瓦尼表示：「人们原本认为一项商品可以用上十年，可是才用三年就换了， 手机更是年年更新。」 “There is a fundamental shift that is taking place,” says Samir Bhavnani, research director at Current Analysis, a market research firm. “People thought a product would last 10 years. They keep it three years. They upgrade their cellphone every year.” 但是新的汰换观可能会让消费者进退失据，因为如果产品以後会更便宜， 现在买就没什麽道理。知道何时买已经变得和知道买什麽同样重要。 But this new form of obsolescence can stymie the consumer because it makes little sense to buy now if the product will be cheaper tomorrow. Knowing when to buy becomes as important as knowing what to buy. 不要奢望你能跟得上科技演进的步伐。应该在有需要的时候买需要的产品 ──而且要真买得起。 You cannot hope to keep pace with the technological change. You buy what you need when you need it — and when you can truly afford it. 不妨把个人电脑的经验应用到电视机和其他设备上面。目前价格最理想的 电视机是萤幕解析度720p的，艾克斯特先生买的就是这个等级。 It might be useful to apply the PC lessons to TVs and other devices. The best prices for TVs right now are for a level of screen resolution called 720p, which is what the Axtles bought. 电视机业者用这个数字来指萤幕的画素或图点数目。画素愈多，影像愈清 晰。所以1080p的电视比较好，但是价格也比较贵。 The number is television industry shorthand for the number of pixels, or dots, on the screen. More pixels and the picture is more defined. So TVs with 1080p are better. But they are also more expensive. 可是，不是还有更好的要上市吗？是的，1440p，解析度更高，虽然目前 只有一家业者，规模很大但知名度不高的台湾厂商奇美电子，宣称将於2007年 进入量产。 But isn’t something even better coming? Yes, 1440p, an even higher level of resolution, although at this point only one maker, a large but obscure Taiwanese manufacturer, Chi Mei Optoelectronics, claims to have one ready for production in 2007. 新力电子美国区总裁史坦‧葛莱斯戈表示，解析度将持续增进，如同数位 相机的（百万）画素更多，或个人电脑的硬碟容量更大。他在谈到1440p规格时 表示：「尚需时日。」（有几位业界分析师表示价格约可在2010年前後普及化。） Stan Glasgow, president of Sony’s electronics unit in the United States, says resolution will continue to improve, just like digital cameras take pictures with more megapixels or PCs come with ever-larger hard drives. “It will be a longtime coming,” he said of the 1440p standard. (Several industry analysts said it would be affordable around the end of the decade.) 你想知道现在该怎麽办。基本原则是记住，对於对角线长度不到152公分， 也就是最多人选购的那些萤幕而言，画素是720p或1080p差别不大。因为如果你 和电视机距离3公尺以上，便看不出差别。本身是工程师也是家庭剧院设计顾问 的卡尔顿‧贝尔如此认为，他有一个讨论大萤幕电视机的部落格。 You want to know what to do now. The basic point to remember is that in screens with a diagonal measurement of less than 152 centimeters, which is what most people buy, it makes little difference whether the TV is 720p or 1080p. That is because if your TV is 3 meters away or more, you cannot tell the difference, said Carlton Bale, an engineer and home theater design consultant who runs a blog on big- screen TVs. 贝尔先生说：「大多数人看电视不会坐得那麽近。」 “Most people do not sit that close to their TV,” Mr. Bale said. 「别去选购市面上最复杂先进的机型，」他说。「最复杂先进机型的某些 功能，你大概一时半会还不会常常用到。」 “Don’t go for the highest-end model out there,” he said. “You probably won’t be able to regularly use the features of the highest-end models for a while.” 对16岁的夏新‧艾克斯特来说，买了新电视之後，他考虑要换掉用了一年 的手机。「总会有更好的东西，」他说：「我现在已经习惯这样了。」 As for 16-year-old Shaheen Axtle, after getting the TV, he was thinking about replacing his year-old cellphone. “There will always be something better,” he said. “I’m used to that by now.” By DAMON DARLIN -- 赵客缦胡缨 吴钩霜雪明 银鞍照白马 飒沓如流星 十步杀一人 千里不留行 事了拂衣去 深藏身与名 闲过信陵饮 脱剑膝前横 将炙啖朱亥 持觞劝侯赢 三盃吐然诺 五岳倒为轻 眼花耳热後 意气素霓生 救赵挥金槌 邯郸先震惊 千秋二壮士 烜赫大梁城 纵使侠骨香 不惭世上英 谁能书合下 白首太玄经 李白 侠客行 --

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